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Middle East
Yemeni clashes claim lives
At least 15 killed as Zaidi group battles pro-government tribe in mountainous west.
Last Modified: 07 Apr 2008 10:05 GMT


Witnesses say at least 15 people have been killed in fierce gun battles between Shia fighters and members of a tribe loyal to the government in the mountainous west of Yemen.
 
Thirteen people were also wounded in the clashes between the pro-government al Bukhtan tribe and the rebels, witnesses said on Sunday.
The clashes broke out on Saturday in the Saada province near the border with Saudi Arabia, two months after Zaidi fighters killed an al-Bukhtan member who they accused of supporting the government.
Government forces have since joined the battle by shelling Zaidi fighter positions.
 
The on-off uprising led by the Zaidi fighters against the Yemeni government has claimed thousands of lives since 2004.
 
Zaidi minority
 
An offshoot of Shia Islam, the Zaidis are a minority in mainly Sunni Yemen but form the majority in the northwest.
 
Their stated aim is to reinstate the Zaidi Imamate that ruled northern Yemen until the 1962 revolution.
 
The fighters reject the rule of Ali Abdullah Saleh, the Yemeni president, as illegitimate, although Saleh is himself a Zaidi.
 
Saleh has led Yemen since the unification of north and south in 1990. Before that he led North Yemen for 12 years.
Source:
Agencies
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